GED
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Leiden University Liberal Arts & Sciences
Merch, projects and information for the GED community at Leiden University.
Explore GEDTalks PodcastMany global challenges rest at the intersection of governance and scarcity. In GED, we study these problems — why they arise, and how they can be addressed.
What we study
Humans create institutions to shape who gets what, when, and how — but those rules may serve some better than others. We examine how power and exchange work in practice.
We draw on all social sciences: anthropology, economics, political science, sociology, and psychology. Prosperity is our central theme — understood as the conditions under which people flourish.
We train in data analysis — working with statistical evidence — alongside interviews, case studies, and close reading of texts grounded in the experiences of real people.
(Past & present) — hear from those who've walked the GED path, in their own words.
I'm currently doing a corporate governance internship and for me taking Advanced Quantitative Research Design was the best! Alongside technical skills the way GED incorporates critical thinking skills is quite special. The way GED explores governance beyond the political dimension, with moral and structural implications almost makes the knowledge more applicable.
What GED does really well is put us in settings where we have to be in debate with others. Whether it be argumentative skills, oral skills, but also a kind of patience and open-mindedness to really understand the other person — not just from an argumentative sense, but also from an empathetic perspective.
I learned coordination and group skills since the major has a lot of group projects and we often have to tackle big challenges with people that come from a vastly different background.
Listening, groupwork, sociability, presentation, public speaking, report writing, problem solving, multitasking, curiosity.
The ability to interlink subjects with one another — and of course, interpersonal skills.
Support your GED community — all profits go directly to funding GED events, initiatives, and student activities.
An initiative by the GED team and students at Leiden University Liberal Arts and Sciences — designed to introduce students to the major and the real debates taking place within it.
A general conceptualization of the GED major. Governance is discussed as the intentional application of human will to the world. The self and political governance are inseparable — within constraints and across time. Economics is the coordination of material life under scarcity, and development is the study of how we achieve outcomes we want over time.
Building on ideas from Institutions of Governance and Development and Institutions in Time, this episode dives into how we view institutions — the backbone of all discussions, from daily life to larger political issues. Participants explore how institutions affect shared values and interactions in complex contexts: the dating market, gender and equality, and immigration.
We'd love to have you in our podcast. Share your perspective on governance, economics and development — past students, current students, and staff all welcome.
You're on the list!
Thank you — a member of the GEDTalks team will be in touch soon.